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Roman Architecture

Yale,, Spring 2009 , Prof. Diana E. E. Kleiner

Updated On 02 Feb, 19

Overview

Introduction to Roman Architecture - It Takes a City: The Founding of Rome and the Beginnings of Urbanism in Italy - Technology and Revolution in Roman Architecture - Civic Life Interrupted: Nightmare and Destiny on August 24, A.D. 79 - Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Houses and Villas at Pompeii - Habitats at Herculaneum and Early Roman Interior Decoration - Gilding the Lily: Painting Palaces and Villas in the First Century A.D - Exploring Special Subjects on Pompeian Walls - From Brick to Marble: Augustus Assembles Rome - Accessing Afterlife: Tombs of Roman Aristocrats, Freedmen, and Slaves - Notorious Nero and His Amazing Architectural Legacy - The Creation of an Icon: The Colosseum and Contemporary Architecture in Rome - The Prince and the Palace: Human Made Divine on the Palatine Hill - Paper Topics: Discovering the Roman Provinces and Designing a Roman City - The Mother of All Forums: Civic Architecture in Rome under Trajan - Rome and a Villa: Hadrian's Pantheon and Tivoli Retreat - The Roman Way of Life and Death at Ostia, the Port of Rome - Bigger Is Better: The Baths of Caracalla and Other Second- and Third-Century Buildings in Rome - Hometown Boy: Honoring an Emperor's Roots in Roman North Africa - Baroque Extravaganzas: Rock Tombs, Fountains, and Sanctuaries in Jordan, Lebanon, and Libya - Roman Wine in Greek Bottles: The Rebirth of Athens - Making Mini Romes on the Western Frontier - Rome Redux: The Tetrarchic Renaissance - Rome of Constantine and a New Rome

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Lecture 17: The Roman Way of Life and Death at Ostia, the Port of Rome

4.1 ( 11 )

Lecture Details

Roman Architecture (HSAR 252)

Professor Kleiner focuses on Ostia, the port of Rome, characterized by its multi-storied residential buildings and its widespread use of brick-faced concrete. She begins with the citys public face--the Forum, Capitolium, Theater, and Piazzale delle Corporazioni. The Piazzale, set behind the Theater, was the location of various shipping companies with black-and-white mosaics advertising their business. Professor Kleiner examines the Baths of Neptune and the Insula of Diana, a brick apartment building with four floors that housed a number of Ostias working families. The Insula of Diana and other similar structures, including warehouses like the Horrea Epagathiana, demonstrate a fundamental feature of second-century Ostia the appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of brick facing. Since the time of Nero, brick was customarily covered with stucco and paint, but these Ostian buildings are faced with exposed brick, the color, texture, and design of which make it attractive in its own right. The lecture ends with a survey of several single family dwellings in Ostia, including the fourth-century House of Cupid and Psyche, notable for the pastel-colored marble revetment on its walls and floors and for a charming statue of the legendary lovers.

0000 - Chapter 1. Ostia Romes First Colony
1237 - Chapter 2. Civic Architecture in Ostia
2332 - Chapter 3. Transacting Business at the Piazzale delle Corporazioni
3657 - Chapter 4. Residential Architecture at Ostia The Insulae
4943 - Chapter 5. The Warehouses of Ostia
5619 - Chapter 6. Painted Decoration and Mosaic Floors
010433 - Chapter 7. Re-emergence of the Domus at Ostia and Tombs at Isola Sacra

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website httpopen.yale.educourses

This course was recorded in Spring 2009.